The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for mounting turbulence sensors in front of an unmanned underwater vehicle undisturbed from the hydrodynamic effects of the leading edge or nose of the unmanned underwater vehicle.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Underwater vehicles, manned and unmanned, have been used for a variety of different purposes. Depending upon the purpose, one or more sensors may be mounted to the vehicle. For example. U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,001 to Polvani illustrates a method and apparatus for navigating a killer vehicle towards a mine emitting underwater a magnetic field by using measurements of the mine""s magnetic field. The measurements are gathered by at least two magnetic sensors affixed to the killer vehicle.
Some underwater vehicles are provided with a folded hydrophone array in their nose, which array forms part of a forward-looking sonar for obstacle avoidance, mine detection, and the like. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,363,343 to Klein and 5,602,801 to Nussbaum et al. illustrate such vehicles.
Yet other underwater vehicles have been provided with acoustic transducer means for detecting the presence of a target mounted to a nose portion of the underwater vehicle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,687 to Mentcher, for example, illustrates one such vehicle having a detachable acoustic acquisition system mounted to the nose of the vehicle.
Unmanned underwater vehicles also have been used to collect ocean turbulence data; however, the sensors have been mounted on these vehicles in a way which allowed the hydrodynamic effects of the unmanned underwater vehicles to interfere with the data gathering operations.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an underwater vehicle which can be used to collect ocean turbulence data without interference from the hydrodynamic effects of the vehicle.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved system for mounting sensors to the nose of an underwater vehicle.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved mounting system which documents and removes any noise caused by the mounting system.
These and other objects are accomplished with the present invention by providing a system for collecting ocean turbulence data which includes an underwater vehicle having a means for collecting ocean turbulence data without interference from the hydrodynamic effects of the vehicle. The data collecting means comprises at least one sensor for collecting the ocean turbulence data and means for positioning the at least one sensor sufficiently forward of the nose of the vehicle to avoid interference from the hydrodynamic effects of the vehicle. The data collecting means is also provided with means for compensating for motion not induced by turbulence.